My previous post was about the lady who recently moved to California and found someone else’s possessions in boxes she had previously packed with her own stuff. Since my name and cell number appeared on one of the interloping items, I was able to figure out the real owner (A movie producer who has been in contact with me about my book, Master Detective) and put the parties in contact to sort things out.

Well, they have compared notes and found that the journal, the letter to a child at camp and several of the strange books do indeed belong to my movie producer friend, but several other books written in Korean do not. That means that the woman who contacted me has had items from at least TWO other people packed in her boxes! How is this possible? Was it a zealous, but sloppy customs official? Or is there a transit/shipping warehouse somewhere in which some of the employees view the items in their charge the way most people view garage sales? I’d like to think that the Homeland Security people are faithfully checking boxes for dangerous contraband, but if so, are we trusting our security to people who can’t even put stuff back where they found it?

Anyway, that’s the update; one mystery solved, another created. Sort of like life.